The concept of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a popular topic, and in recognition of this, experts in the field came together in a Tbilisi roundtable on December 15 to talk about the future of this tool in the business industry.
The AI roundtable was hosted by Startup Grind at Tbilisi State University and included three experts in their respective fields, Co-founder and CEO of Kernel, Giorgi Tukhashvili, CTO and Co-founder of Pulsar AI, Zaal Gachechiladze, and Venture Partner of the Global Public Offering Fund, Mike Sigal. The event was a discussion panel for speakers to talk about the stage of AI, its risks, opportunities, correlation to business, and to give a general overview.
Gachechiladze said that AI is in the early stages of its development, and as such it is hard to predict what will happen in the future.
“It’s a tool, technology, and what all technology does is make us more productive,” he said. “It makes the things we were doing early cheaper, and much faster, just like the internet.”
Pulsar AI is a product company that was founded in 2017 that’s geared towards solving the conversational AI problems that take place in the automotive industry. Gachechiladze said the idea was to create a tool that allowed AI to do jobs such as replying to emails and SMS messages, so as to increase productivity and allow workers to focus on face-to-face meetings. Pulsar’s product automated responses with human language was a niche that was missing in the US market.
According to Gachechiladze, the company exceeded expectations and was bought out by a US company in 2021, just 20 months after it started. However, the Georgian version of the company, now called Super Nova, still exists, and involves many variations of AI, including text, face recognition, audio, and more. Gachechiladze has since shifted his focus towards another venture that focuses on the linguistics of AI technology.
AI Lab is a company that does fundamental research on language models. Gachechiladze said the goal is to create a Georgian language AI model that can be used since language acts as a divider in many situations. The company started in August and the model will be presented in the upcoming week. If the project succeeds, the hope is to incorporate other worldwide languages into this model.
Regarding AI, Gachechiladze said each year tasks and jobs are becoming more and more efficient because of AI, and people who live in countries that end up regulating AI will decline in skill development, therefore the only way to keep up will be by becoming “rule breakers.”
“People who obey the rules will be left behind, and people who don’t will be able to use the technology in whatever goals they’re pursuing,” he said.
Tukhashvili’s main concept at the AI roundtable was about the application of AI in businesses and startups, and how companies have become the beneficiaries of the AI revolution. His company, Kernel, helps microbusinesses with AI technology by giving them monetization strategies with access to finance and giving users tax compliance and digitalization. They have over 140 companies using their product worldwide, but their primary focus is India, Indonesia, Philippines, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.
The biggest AI service Kernel uses is voice navigation, which allows a customer to directly talk to the application and say what they want created, such as an invoice, which is then automatically made without having to manually input anything. For India, this is a big benefit for 69% of the population, where 400 million people are illiterate.
According to Tukhashvili, their company is also using traditional, or common, methods of AI. Still, their next goal is to develop AI training on documentation and the frequently asked questions page. This would enhance the automation and individualization of messages to customers across many channels, including the “get started page” which would be in a simple, video format tailored towards the individual, rather than having to read 10 pages-worth of text. Like Gachechiladze, Tukhashvili also believes that AI technology is going to skyrocket efficiency and productivity in the workplace.
In addition to the use of AI in the business world, Tukhashvili said the technology will also play a big part in increasing digitalization and mental health. He said that people in his generation are having a hard time connecting with others, and that will only progress with upcoming generations. Therefore, AI could become a method people use to stay connected, understood, and valued.
“AI could be an escape from reality… with digital AI friends, girlfriends, significant others – this is the realistic cure for the broken market of marriages and relationships which is going to become more transactional,” said Tukhashvili.
Startup Grind, the organizer of the event, is an international startup community with many chapters and members worldwide. It serves as a platform to share, educate, connect, and inspire with monthly events on different topics. Most of the organization’s events require a cover fee, but others that are of high importance, such as the recent AI roundtable, are free to attend.
By Shelbi R. Ankiewicz
